


The Voucher

by myrtlebroadbelt



Category: Misfits (TV 2009)
Genre: F/M, Mutual Pining, POV Alternating, Pizza, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 04:57:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21010112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrtlebroadbelt/pseuds/myrtlebroadbelt
Summary: In which Kelly has a pizza voucher, and Nathan gets the wrong idea.(Or does he?)





	The Voucher

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place immediately after the [“Dinner Date”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWYG74f2nHY) online film, between S02E05 and S02E06.

Nathan was smoking a joint at the picnic table when he spotted Jessica approaching the community centre, arms folded tightly across her cute little chest. He gave her a wink and a wave as she passed, and she looked at him askance.

He couldn’t really blame her. She may not have known about him suspecting her of murder, but there was still that whole leering-at-her-in-her-knickers thing.

She ignored him completely a few minutes later when she walked past in the opposite direction, alone and looking even more uncomfortable than when she arrived. 

Poor Barry. She probably ran as soon as she saw that pizza voucher. Even Nathan knew better than to use a coupon on a date, and he wasn’t exactly a gentleman. He’d tried to warn the little weirdo about it, but the Belgian driving instructor comment may not have done much for his credibility.

“You hungry?”

Nathan turned to see Kelly emerging from the community centre, smiling at him in a way she hadn’t in weeks. His heart caught in his throat, but he gulped it down and forced himself to be smooth.

“Nah,” he said. “I had a quarter of a Kit Kat this morning. I’m full up.”

He gripped the edge of the bench as he waited for whatever came next — hopefully an invitation to hers for dinner. It would be all Nathan could do not to leap over the table and follow her home.

Even if he couldn’t shag her, he still wanted to spend time with her. Just mates was better than nothing.

“Wanna go for a pizza?” Kelly suggested, holding up a sheet of paper. “I’ve got a voucher. Half off.”

Nathan nearly dropped his joint. 

“Where’d you get that?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

“Just found it on the floor. Nice one, yeah?”

So that’s how she was going to play it. Interesting.

“Found it on the floor, did you?” Nathan waggled his eyebrows. “Sure you did.”

He knew how it really went down. Simon had offered it to her, sulking about Jessica’s rejection and saying it shouldn’t go to waste. _ Take someone special_, he had probably told her dramatically. _ Get extra cheese. _

And who was someone special with extra cheese? Nathan fucking Young.

Kelly was still determined to play coy. “How fucking high are you right now?” she asked, plucking the joint from his fingers and taking a hit.

She held his gaze as she blew smoke, and Nathan’s jaw went slack. Oh, this was definitely on.

“Well?” she said, handing back the joint. “You coming or not?”

Nathan took one last toke of his own and stood up. “Lead the way, m’lady.”

Kelly had listened in just enough to know that Nathan thought she was asking him out, but not enough to understand why.

After all, inviting someone for pizza using a half-off voucher you found on the floor thirty seconds ago wasn’t exactly what she would call romantic. Or sexy, to put it in terms more familiar to Nathan.

What made the whole thing even weirder was that he was right.

Or maybe he wasn’t. Kelly wasn’t really sure, which is why she wasn’t calling this a date. It was just a pizza shared between mates, one of whom couldn’t figure out what the fuck she was feeling.

She had thought it was over — or at least she had told herself it was. And then when Bruno showed up, she had been so sure it was the final nail in the coffin. 

It just so happened that Nathan was historically good at getting out of those.

Before Kelly knew it, he had a hand on her shoulder and condolences on his tongue, and even though he was wearing that stupid superhero costume, she didn’t think he had ever looked more sincere.

Not to mention he had run to the top of a building and shoved through police because he thought she was in trouble, which was probably the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for her.

So that was a thing.

Kelly glanced over at Nathan as they walked. He was whistling some made-up melody, and there was a literal spring in his step — she actually thought she saw him skip. 

For a while now, she had been doing her best to avoid the broken record in his head that repeated _ just mates _ over and over, in tones ranging from confused to bitter. But now, for the first time in weeks, the idea that he still fancied her didn’t make her want to run for the hills.

_ Fuck it_, she thought. _ Let’s see what happens. _

“So, what toppings do you wanna get?” Nathan asked when they were nearly there. “Pepperoni? Onions?” He paused for dramatic effect. “Oysters?”

Kelly had meant it when she told him he was shit at this.

“Don’t think they offer oysters,” she said practically.

“You never know,” said Nathan. “Anyway, I know you don’t like mushrooms, so I’ll make that sacrifice.”

Kelly didn’t say anything. She couldn’t believe he had remembered that. He forgot the name of everyone he ever met, but he remembered she didn’t like mushrooms on her pizza. She hardly even remembered telling him so in the first place. 

“Well, what’ll it be?”

“Maybe just extra cheese,” Kelly decided, suddenly feeling a bubble of nervous excitement in her stomach and wondering if she would even be able to keep anything down.

“Right,” Nathan said knowingly. “Extra cheese.”

She had no idea what he was on about. Maybe he really had smoked more than she thought.

As they approached the pizza shop, Nathan hurried ahead of her to open the door. “After you,” he said with a flourish.

His grand gesture was quickly ruined by a departing patron who thought Nathan was holding the door for _ him_. “Cheers, mate,” the guy said as he walked out, and Nathan’s face fell.

Kelly suppressed a laugh as she stepped inside. 

Couldn’t that twat see that Nathan was trying to be chivalrous? Annoying as it was, at least it got a smile out of Kelly, which was always a win in his book.

They ordered extra cheese, and Nathan made a show of reaching for his wallet, even though he didn’t have much to contribute — unless this place accepted condoms as currency. Just as he was about to put on a shocked expression and say he’d been robbed or something, Kelly put a hand on his arm. 

“Yours is the free half,” she said, and took out her own money to pay.

She didn’t say it like she felt sorry for him, or like she was going out of her way to be nice and he should be grateful. She just said it like it was obvious, and how could he ever think otherwise?

It was an extraordinary feat to render Nathan speechless, but Kelly was better at it than anyone.

They sat across from each other at a little table by the window, the pizza box open between them. It reminded Nathan of that night on the mezzanine, laughing about his wank sock. It felt like just yesterday. Or a hundred years ago. He couldn’t decide which.

Nathan ate quickly, which tended to happen when you were starving. It also tended to make food taste very, very good. So good that you just have to moan around every bite. And maybe amp it up a little bit for the sake of present company.

“You’re so gross,” Kelly said, but she was smiling.

Nathan swallowed and started on another slice. “You love it.”

She gave him one of those unreadable looks of hers, and her foot bumped his ankle under the table. Nathan decided it was on purpose.

He could hardly believe this was happening. And to think that just a few days ago, she was crying over a dead gorilla.

His chewing slowed.

Oh. 

Right. The gorilla. Just a few days ago.

Just a few days ago, Kelly was crying over a guy she really liked who turned out to be a gorilla, and now she was eating pizza with Nathan. At a discount.

This was a rebound.

Did she think she could use him to get over gorilla guy? Well, nice try, but Nathan Young wasn’t going to let himself be used by anyone.

Okay, so that wasn’t entirely true. If it were anybody else, he would be happy to be used. Use away! But this wasn’t anybody else. This was Kelly. 

Of course he wanted to shag her. But he didn’t want to do it just the once. In fact, he had started to think he would be fine with only shagging Kelly and nobody else for the rest of his life. Or her life, what with the immortality.

So that was a thing.

He could see it now. They’d go back to hers, and as soon as it was over, she’d say it was a mistake, that she regretted it. Maybe she wouldn’t even want to be mates after that. Either way, Nathan would feel like utter shit. 

Of course, there was always the chance that she wouldn’t regret it. 

But what if she did?

Nathan realized he was tearing his pizza crust into tiny pieces. Across from him, Kelly had stopped eating, and she was frowning down at the table. 

Shit. She had heard him.

He supposed it was easier this way — he didn’t have to say it out loud. For once, he was glad she could read his mind. For twice, if you included that time it saved him from an eternity in the dirt.

“I’m finished,” Kelly said, tossing her half-eaten slice back in the box. “You can have the rest.”

Nathan accepted it — he hadn’t been lying about that Kit Kat earlier. Technically, this meant he was tucking into the not-free half, but he doubted Kelly would ask him to pay her back for one and a half slices of pizza. 

They were quiet after that, as Nathan chewed (without moaning) and Kelly sat there absentmindedly straightening her rings, one after the other, avoiding eye contact.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Nathan swallowed his last bit of crust too quickly, and it scraped his throat as it went down. He winced, but tried not to make a big deal out of it.

“Wanna go?” he said, a bit hoarsely, and Kelly nodded.

Nathan walked out ahead of her, but he didn’t hold the door open this time. He just kept his hand on it long enough to make sure it didn’t hit her in the face.

When they were outside, Nathan offered to walk Kelly home. She kind of wished he hadn’t, because it just made it harder to accept that nothing was going to happen when they got there.

She had heard Nathan thinking that word, _ rebound_, and it had stung her at first. She had flashbacks to Lee, him thinking she was screwing around. How could he think that about her? She would never use Nathan to make herself feel better.

Right?

The pizza had gone sour in her mouth when she realized that maybe she was doing it without even knowing. Maybe she only thought she still fancied him, but she was actually just in a vulnerable place and latched onto the first guy who was nice to her. 

She was upset about Bruno, and Nathan had been there for her. Not to mention his two most appealing qualities at the moment — he wasn’t a monkey, and he could never die.

If Kelly was being honest with herself, she was pretty shit at this, too.

Nathan was probably right — she would regret it. And then she’d have to reject him all over again. How many times could she say “just mates” before he didn’t even want to be that anymore?

No. She couldn’t do that to him.

If she wanted a rebound, it couldn’t be with Nathan. Rebounds weren’t supposed to be with people you cared about. They were supposed to be with people you just met. A pleasant distraction. Only Kelly had never shagged someone she just met.

Well, except for Bruno. But that was different — he’d thought such nice things about her. How was she supposed to know he was a fucking monkey?

The walk to Kelly’s flat was mostly quiet, which was unusual where Nathan was concerned. He made a few comments here and there, half-hearted attempts at humor. In between, she caught fragments of thoughts — _thought it was gonna happen ..._ _get over it _ — like a radio cutting in and out. 

She should probably just swear off blokes completely for a while. Finish community service, think about what she was going to do after. Watch a few crap movies, eat some ice cream out of the carton. She’d be over him in no time.

Over Bruno. Obviously.

Fuck, she needed a smoke. She dug in her pocket for her cigarettes and offered one to Nathan, but he just shook his head. That was new — usually he would sneak an extra one out of the pack, and Kelly would pretend not to notice.

She stopped walking for a moment, patting herself down in search of her lighter, and groaned to realize she’d left it in her locker. The noise had barely escaped her mouth when she heard a click and looked over to see Nathan offering his.

Well. That was both helpful and not helpful at the same time.

“Thanks,” she said, leaning toward the flame.

Nathan pocketed the lighter. “You’d forget your own tits if they weren’t attached to your chest.”

Kelly nearly choked on the smoke in her mouth. It wasn’t as if it was a weird comment, coming from him, but things had been so awkward that it caught her off guard.

Even Nathan looked a bit surprised by it. His laugh came out as a snort, and his face broke into a smile, which Kelly couldn’t help but mirror.

“Piss off,” she said, a delayed reaction, voice quaking with laughter.

So they kept walking, and Kelly kept smoking, and smiling, and it felt like it took too long and not enough time all at once.

When they reached her door, Kelly got her key out, and they stood there in silence for a minute, like they were both waiting for the other to decide what would happen next. 

What happened next was mostly just a lot of staring.

Sometimes it scared Kelly when Nathan looked at her like he was looking at her now — eyes soft, not pulling any faces, lips not curling into the shape of a joke. It was easier for her to ignore her own feelings if she pretended he didn’t have any.

Easier to believe she was avoiding a mistake instead of making one.

_ Do something_, Kelly thought, and she didn’t know if she was talking to Nathan or herself. Just this once, she wished her power worked both ways. Or maybe she just needed to pop another one of those pills and force it out of herself.

Eventually, Nathan flashed a closed-mouth smile. “Thanks for the pizza,” he said. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Kelly replied, watching him turn. “See ya.” 

Nathan walked away with his hands in his pockets, and Kelly put her key in the door.

_ What the fuck is wrong with me? _ they both thought at the same time.

**Author's Note:**

> Someone said in the comments on “Dinner Date” that Kelly used the voucher for her “pizza dinner” with Nathan, presumably thinking of S01E06. And even though I know that’s not right, the shipper in me was like, “Did someone say Nelly pizza date?”
> 
> Then this happened. Congratulations, I played myself.


End file.
